Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Blueberry Mochi Cake

Mochi (pronounced mo-chee) is one of my favorite Japanese foods on the planet. It is pounded special short-grain rice. I did a few posts about the plain New Year's mochi my family makes and the sweet Japanese confectioneries such as those sold by Sakuraya in Los Angeles.

In those tart frozen yogurt shops (such as Pinkberry, Tutti Fruitti and Yogurtland), you can get little mochi balls of goodness. They are perfect with frozen yogurt because they are chewy, sweet, and they don't harden against the cold yogurt (unlike those killer mini-gummy bears - I thought I was going to need dental work!)

Recently, I was gifted some Blueberry Mochi Cake by JustJenn. OMG. So delicious. I had to make it!

The key ingredient is the box of Mochiko (sweet rice flour) - it cannot be substituted. Really, no substitutions. I used Koda Farms Mochiko sweet rice flour (see their website for information about mochi and this California family owned Japanese American farm). You can find this in a Japanese, Asian, or health food store (it's gluten-free). Mine sells it for under $1.50 per box. Mochiko is made from special sweet short-grain rice and is very soft in texture. It will make the cake a bit chewy and, well, mochi-like!

This is more of a Mochi "cake" than mochi you might have seen in a Japanese store. Those are usually filled with sweetened beans (red or lima) and the outer mochi doesn't have a bunch of eggs and milk in it like this one.

In a large bowl, combine (by hand) the sugar and melted butter. Add evaporated milk and mix well. Add eggs and mix. Finally, stir in baking powder, mochiko and vanilla.

After mixing the batter, I spread a thin layer in the 9 x 13 pan. Then I sprinkled some semi-thawed blueberries. Repeated a couple times. Or, you can mix it all together but the batter gets a little blue (nothing wrong with that!)

I used Trader Joe's Frozen Wild Blueberries. These blueberries are smaller and I ended up using 3/4 of the 12 oz. bag.

My new oven! See the temperature remained at 350 for the entire cycle! Yippee.Bake for 1 hour at 350 degrees until toothpick clean and golden brown.

ooooooh i can't WAIT to make this!! I love all things mochi. i make nien gao every year for chinese new year but have always wondered how to incorporate more sticky rice pastries into my life the rest of the year. :)

This is great- I just bought an extra box of Mochiko to make ice cream mochi- but I've been having major lemon/blueberry cravings! I think I might make this tomorrow!! ... I wonder if lemon juice or zest would ruin it? Thanks for the recipe!

Would this work with fresh blueberries (do you need to add extras)? I am tempted to break out my baking pan this weekend! Nice to know I am not the only one who labels my cooking ingredients via P-touch...

You know, I've never had mochi, and now, I can't wait to try it!! It sounds great in everything from Pinkberry froyo to this cake. And can we talk about this cake? It looks incredible. Not to mention I adore blueberries :) I can't wait to experiment with mochi!!

savour-fare, I tried it the second day and it was good. Don't refrigerate any mochi products as they harden (like regular rice).

linda, Come to think of it, I've never seen another type of mochiko powder (because I think my family has used this white box for.e.v.e.r. and I pick it up at the Japanese store who would probably only carry this brand. I think if it is truly sweet rice flour and found in an Asian place, it might work. I wouldn't use a Bob's Red Mill rice flour because it might be made of a different type of rice (such as medium grade). I think Mochi is all about the type of rice, so the powdered form needs to start with that rice, know what I mean? :) But I'm not an expert!! The Korean store where you get the kaki/persimmon should have mochiko. :)

Dave, I think fresh blueberries would work. Give it a try and call me - I'll come over! :) And I heart my P-Touch!! AND, I found more of these tupperware containers in a Goodwill and bought them up!!!

I tried this cake, it is delicious and it came out just like the picture...for those who live in NJ, there is a Japanese food market, in Edgewater www.mitsuwanj.com this is their website and you can find everything there....enjoy it

Thanks for posting this! Mine's in the oven now, being made for my son's gluten-allergic teacher. I'm mostly excited about it because I've made a mochi cake using coconut milk, and loved everything about the cake except for the coconut milk flavor. So happy for the use of evap milk--the fruit ingredients can be altered in many ways now!

I made this last night and it was SO good! I loved crust it had on the edges. I only have a quarter of the pan left and there were only two of us eatting it. It was really good warm. I will definately have to make more very soon!

This Blueberry mochi cake looks so beautiful with the colors, I'm sure it'll be a big hit with the kids! Nice colors! Although I'm to a big fan of mochi cake, this sure looks yummy! I'm normally the one that will say no to mochi cake. thanks for shearing your post.

Anonymous, these were made in a 9x13 pan that was sprayed. If you make cupcakes, they don't stick too much to the liner...no more than a regular cupcake. This is a mochi "cake" so it isn't as sticky as regular mochi confections. - mary the food librarian

Dear cammylovesfood (#66), I think the recipe would be way different with rice milk. Rice milk is very thin, and evaporated milk is very thick because all the excess water has been removed. You can try it...but I can't guarantee anything. The batter will be more watery and that will affect the cake. If you are trying to go dairy free, you might try to make your own evaporated soy milk, soy creamer or coconut milk. Again, can't guarantee anything...but let me know how it turns out! - mary

#70 - Tamara, I wouldn't use frozen strawberries because strawberries are very watery, but you could use other frozen berries (raspberry, boysenberry, blueberries) and frozen mango. I just stay away from strawberries because of the high water content. - mary

Hi, I don't usually comment on blogs, but I just wanted to thank you for this great recipe. It is my family's favorite! My parents who are first-generation Koreans especially love the familiar mochi texture. I only do half the sugar and cut down on the butter a bit, but it still comes out delicious! Thank you again!